Julius Raab

Julius Raab (29 November 1891-8 January 1964) was Chancellor of Austria from 2 April 1953 to 11 April 1961, succeeding Leopold Figl and preceding Alfons Gorbach.

Biography
Julius Raab was born in Sankt Poelten, Lower Austria, Austria-Hungary on 29 November 1891 to a middle-class Catholic family. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Russian and Italian fronts of World War I, and he engaged in politics after the defeat of the Central Powers. From 1927 to 1934, he served in the National Council as a Lower Austrian deputy of the Christian Social Party of Austria, and he became the chief of the Lower Austria Heimwehr in 1928. In 1933, he joined the newly-established Fatherland Front coalition, and he was Minister of Commerce for four weeks before the Anschluss took place, also serving as Armament Minister. He escaped death or imprisonment through the help of Lower Austria gauleiter Hugo Jury, and he joined Karl Renner's provisional government after the war. He co-founded the Austrian People's Party (OVP), which denounced the Austrofascism of the 1930s, but he held talks with former Nazis such as Wilhelm Hoettl and Taras Borodajkewycz on their support for OVP policies. In 1951, he became OVP chairman, and he served as Chancellor from 1953 to 1961, declaring neutrality during the Cold War and presiding over rapid reconstruction and development. Having suffered a stroke in 1957, he resigned in 1961, and he died in 1964.